Carissa Hughes Email & Phone Number

Carissa Hughes is a Business Owner/Entrepreneur at Gourmet Goodies Bake Shop based in Winter Haven, Florida, United States, North America. Several years ago, I would be the first person surprised to tell you that I own a "Cupcake & Bake Shop". With a background in Business Management and Organizational Leadership, I always dreamed of owning my own business, but never suspected baking would provide that opportunity. Sweet Starts While living in the St. Louis area for 3 years and working at a large church, my husband, Bob, retired from construction and began baking at home for fun. His cupcakes & cookies were such a hit with our staff, our Pastor started offering them at the church Cafe. With a job opportunity to relocate back to sunny Florida, we tearfully said good-bye to our St. Louis family and accepted the position with high hopes and aspirations. Within a few weeks we wanted to continue our baking hobby and began selling cupcakes on the weekends. We started going door-to-door and eventually developed a weekly route to local businesses. Tests & Trials As our cupcake route continued to grow, we were disappointed when the new job just wasn't a good fit, and continued to look for open doors in ministry. With each interview the doors kept closing and we finally came to the realization that God was leading us to step out in faith and make baking our full time business. We opened our first mall location in April 2011, then our first Bakery in Winter Haven in Feb. 2013. We expanded again and moved to our existing location, in Downtown Winter Haven, Oct. 2015 Keep Moving Forward Thanks to our Friends and Fans, we're continuing to grow and expand. I consider Gigi's of "Gigi's Cupcakes" an incredible role model and I love this quote from her, it pretty much summarizes my story too: "If I can convey just one idea to someone reading my story, it would be to believe in yourself, walk with integrity, work hard and trust in God. And maybe your life won’t turn out exactly how you were expecting or hoping it to be; but maybe, just maybe, it will be so much better than you could have ever imagined!"